I noticed AA won't let you select seats in advance pretty much at all unless you pay a fee now....automatically assigned at check in.
USAirways was up selling somewhat but not to this extreme.
It's not the up sell so much that bothers me but the fact they deny it so... They just pretend there are no seats left and imply that unless you pay the extra fee you may not get a seat assigned at all. Meanwhile if you check the loads the plane is only half sold or something.
AA had the worst customer service in my experience...USAirways used to hold that honor back when they started charging for a drink of water but they had actually improved in recent years.
We'll see what happens but it looks like this merger will make both airlines worse, not better.